Homeschooled by a conservative Christian family, Timothy Kurek was raised to believe homosexuality was an abomination. But when a close friend revealed her family had disowned her for being a lesbian he resolved to learn how gays really lived.

Kurek, 26, 'came out' and spent the next year pretending to be a gay man, experiencing an isolation from friends and family he never expected.

The Portland, Ore., man told ABCthat he first conceived the project after a friend he knew from karaoke confided in him that she was a lesbian, and that her parents had just disowned her over the revelation.

For years, Kurek had been told that the loving thing to do as a Christian would be to tell his friend that she was an abomination and who should repent immediately if she wanted to go to heaven.